MARS HILL — Blue skies and the green of spring spreading across the Blue Ridge Mountains made April 19 a beautiful day for a wedding in Mars Hill. For five happy couples gathered at St. Andrew the Apostle Church, it was a chance to bring their existing marriages into full recognition in the Catholic Church.
The parish hosted a special Mass that included convalidations of marriage for five couples celebrated by their pastor, Father Anthony Mbanefo of the Missionary Society of St. Paul.
Convalidation is the process by which a couple who has been married civilly brings their marriage into the Church, validating it according to Church law and making it a sacramental union.
After the Easter Vigil, when one or both members of a couple have received the sacrament of initiation, churches often celebrate ceremonies for multiple couples.
What was unusual was the number at this small parish. Four of the couples attend St. Andrew and one attends Sacred Heart, its mission in Burnsville.
Father Mbanefo recognized the impending need and planning for the convalidation began, said Mercy Sister Peggy Verstege, who has served at St. Andrew for more than 40 years and was instrumental in organizing the ceremony.
“Really the journey toward this day started last year when we began OCIA classes for those who came into the Church this year,” Sister Peggy said. “We talked about convalidation and decided to do a group ceremony, so we got all the paperwork done, agreed on the readings. This is such an important day because it’s a celebration of marriage and life, and also hopefully offers an important witness for others to follow.”
The five couples whose marriages were convalidated are Mitch and Jamie Cline, Stephen and Kelly Hansen, Kathryn and Matthew Papay, Michael and Cressida Shelton, and Zachariah and Kelsey Symons.
During the ceremony, the couples renewed their wedding vows and exchanged rings.
Father Mbanefo offered a moving homily about the importance of Catholic marriage and its many benefits, including the focus on bearing and raising children and the chance for couples to grow closer to each other and to Jesus through their marriage.
He reminded the congregation that Jesus started His public ministry at a wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, as described in the Gospel of John. There, at the bidding of the Blessed Mother, He changed ordinary water into wine. 
Zachariah and Kelsey Symons exchange rings during their wedding ceremony April 19 at St. Andrew Church.
“This was the first miracle of Jesus Christ where He shared with us that He is truly from God,” Father Mbanefo said. “The full presence of God was at the feast of a wedding. That was not accidental … the marriage covenant had been messed up by sin, and God sent His Son into the world to restore things to their proper order. The union of a man and a woman is something that God created. Marriage is a divine institution. … It came from God and it is God who blesses it.”
After Mass, a reception featured a luncheon at which the couples gathered around a large cake and took turns cutting it.
The Clines have been married for 17 years, and both came into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil.
“We finally get a chance to get it right at this beautiful ceremony,” Jamie Cline said. “It’s such a beautiful blessing to be able to do this.”
The ceremony was a special experience for parish secretary Kelly Hansen, whose husband Stephen Hansen came into the Church at the Easter Vigil after more than a decade of inquiry and study, she said.
“We had no witnesses or friends at our civil wedding 30 years ago, so it was a special blessing to share this celebration with friends who feel like family,” she said.
The celebratory mood of the day carried out into the parking lot, where a message scrawled on the back window of one of the couple’s vehicles conveyed the true message of the day: “Just Married!”
— Christina Lee Knauss